Menneskelig (request from Chino5294)
by snowgem33
Summary: After the Numbers War, Quattro finds out that the scar on his face is actual evidence of a transformation into a Barian many years ago. This information wears down his mental and physical health. Frantic he goes to the former Barian's for help, but the one Barian he wants to seek comfort from has gone 'home'. His failing mentality convinces him Barian World has to go to have Shark.
1. Rio Gets Possessed

I cringed as I watched my brother sob over me in the hospital. I could not help the feeling of pity and disgust that seemed to flow through-out me. How could Nash sit/half-standing there, crying like as if he'd lost everything dear to him? ...I'm sure from his point of view, that must've been what it seemed like.

I thought for a second. _How did we end up here...?_

I remembered Vector and that portal...next thing I know, my suddenly human body is laying in a hospital bed, unconscious, and my noble brother, under the assumption that he is human, merely sits there and sobs like a baby. Despite being some form of a ghost floating around the hospital room, I can feel my fist tighten.

That Quattro guy seemed to have some role in this, especially since he happened to be the one who put me here. But he did seem quite surprised when his card started an actual fire. However, I couldn't bring myself to blame anyone but him, seeing as how there was no evidence that anyone else had been involved.

I hovered above Nash as he continued to cry, contemplating the link between Vector and Quattro. Much time passed with no progress; I just couldn't make the connection linking the two and Nash, or Reginald as he preferred to be called now, never ceased crying. I pulled myself into a mock-sitting position just above his head and stared downwards.

Although his face remained buried in his hands, I could see the tears streaming down his cheeks and his red, puffy eyes through the gaps between his fingers. His hair, same as ever, even as a pathetic human, was limp and at some point, somehow, it had gone completely straight. The sleeves of the white button up shirt he was wearing were soaked through, from tears escaping through the gaps between his fingers. I felt dull surprise that the entire outfit wasn't soaked through with how much he'd been crying.

_When did Nash become so pathetic...? _I wondered.

Suddenly, the room seemed to possess a dark, foreboding glow to it. A shiver ran down my 'actual' spine and I begun to feel faint. Nash/Reginald shuddered and continued to cry, not seeming to notice anything different. Slowly, I turned around. My eyes widened and I gasped. The only sign outwardly that showed something was wrong was the beeping of the heart-monitor as it abruptly quickened.

Finally, a reaction was provoked from my dear, noble brother. He gasped suddenly and stood, letting his soaked hands/sleeves fall to his sides. He stepped closer to the bed. "Rio...!" he cried. Instead of reaching for the help button, he turned and rushed out of the room to get a nurse. Not that I noticed any of this.

I hovered there, in an awkward mock-sitting position, to stunned to even move. The heart-rate monitor continued to document my ever racing heartbeat, but as Barian-Human...whatever I was at that point, there was no risk of my heart beating out of my chest; although it sure felt like it would.

In the back of the room, right next to the door 'stood' what can only be described as what humans called a Grim Reaper...but most of the features were wrong or twisted. This...creature possessed a dark, foreboding glow to it. Subconsciously, I began to move towards 'him'. The closer I got, the more familiar the creature seemed...until suddenly, I was 'standing' right in front of it.

All was silent for sixty complete seconds. The creature glared down at me with its one red eye. Then I was hit with a blinding beam of light. My human body started to scream and thrashed uncontrollably. Nash rushed in with quite of few doctors; several of them went to hold me down and were prepping all sorts of injections while one single doctor pushed a struggling, frantic Nash out of the room and slammed the door rather rudely in his face. No one seemed to notice me nor the creature standing directly next to the door or the dark aura filling the room.

Abruptly, the beam of light released me. My 'actual' body abruptly stopped screaming and thrashing before they even had the chance to stick even one needle in me. The heart-rate monitor had slowed to its normal, healthy speed. Beep...beep...beep...beep...beep...leaving some very confused doctors and nurses.

I acknowledged nothing however. To me, it was as if the world had become a lucid dream. The creature, Don Thousand, I was able to remember (but not the dangers in associating with him), had showed me things...everything.

Images flashed through my mind; Nash following me into the portal, our arrival into human bodies, a ugly blonde man sacrificing his two friend to open a portal and summon Vector...everything was there. I witnessed Vector make a deal with this man, Faker, his name was. I also watched him turn around and rescue the human man who'd fallen into Barian world, Byron, with the _help _of the remaining Barian lords. I was shocked to find that they easily turned him against everything and convinced him to join his cause. I was enraged by such pitiful, manipulative plans but I did have to applaud the cruel fool...he found what appeared to be an semi-easy way to destroy Astral World. The images continued. They showed 'Byron's' return from Barian World and how he manipulated his poor sons into Vector's diabolical scheme. The last image I saw was that of Quattro activating that god-forsaken card and accidentally torching everything.

I seethed. The fury I felt when I was shown Vector's plan doubled. _How dare he...? How dare that...? Why would he...? Are humans that blind...?_

I was unable to think clearer any longer. All I could think of was how it was both Vector and Quattro's fault that I was here; I couldn't blame 'Byron' or Faker for falling for Vector's trap or Quattro's brothers for going along with their fathers word. I knew right then and there: One of them had to pay. I glanced back to my body. It was still too damaged from the fire to be of any use to teleport to Barian World and it would be too dangerous to go after Vector in human spirit form. I turned my attention to the door. Quattro was closer and the safer option. I remembered that Quattro sustained injuries trying to get out of the fire while dragging me along with him; a burn or something like that around his right eye. It was safe to assume that surgical precautions would be taken to keep him from going blind in that eye or to prevent later brain damage. It never occurred to me how I knew, but it was an obvious fact to me that the surgery was dangerous and if the surgeons weren't delicate and careful, Quattro would easily die.

I couldn't help the smirk that formed on both my spiritual form and my corporeal body. I never thought to think how I knew but only one thought was apparent at that point:

_Humans that die with fury/hatred in their hearts/souls...turn into Barians._

* * *

So here you go, Chino5294. I hope you like the beginning of the story you requested. This and what will be chapter two were supposed to be one whole chapter but I'm more than a little crunched for time. With that being said, I won't be surprised if this isn't half as good as SINK was but I did the best I could do with the circumstances I was given.

Warning: the idea for this story was requested by Chino5294, all credit should go to her. I am merely writing it for her. Also, I don't own Yugioh Zexal.


	2. The Pressure Is On

Most spirits having an "Out Of Body" experience usually need to stay or are tethered to their unconscious bodies so they can technically stay alive. This was not a problem for me as with a single thought I had transported from my hospital room to the O.R. without even trying. It seemed my assumptions about the "condition" of his injury was correct (or I had just simply teleported to where ever Quattro was at the moment) because the surgeons had just put him under. Unaware of the smirk that graced my lips, I placed one hand on his temple as the Barian emblem formed on his forehead, mostly hidden by the blonde section of his hair...

* * *

Having never been seriously injured before or even aware of the fact that he was even _in surgery, _Quattro hadn't known what to expect. His "dream" had put him in a mirror-like setting of what was currently happening around him. He found himself trapped in an hourglass, as cliche as it was, that hovered above the operating table. He barely had time to observe the scene below before sand started to pour out from the opening on top and onto his head. The right side of his face, which was previously numb, suddenly stung as if someone had sliced the skin open. He hissed and quickly rose a hand to touch the flesh there. His fingers met with burnt flesh and a lukewarm liquid dripping out of a newly opened wound. He refused to actually look and see if it was his own blood.

"Isn't this a unexpected turn of events." A familiar sounding disembodied voice suddenly taunted. "For you, that is."

Quattro gritted his teeth and glared down at the scene below him. "And what do you mean by that?" he spat out, the pain making it surprisingly hard to speak.

**"Isn't it obvious? All of Vetrix's plans are about to come crashing down thanks to you." **A separate but more eery sounding voice replied.

Quattro growled but did not reply. Who exactly did these two think they were to doubt his fathers efficiency? And what was that part about himself being the cause of his fathers so-called 'failure'?

"I would think someone who was capable of carrying out such a big step in Vetrix's plan could see what was right in front of him." The first disembodied voice started to giggle to it's own private joke, this time noticeably female but still vague enough in tone to be difficult for Quattro to remember who it belonged to.

"And if I'm as oblivious as you both seem to believe I am, I see no problem as to why you guys can't fill me in on what I missed." Quattro spoke through gritted teeth as he watched a random surgeon make an unnecessary (in his mind) cut on the right side of his face, which appeared to before the purposes of enlarging an already big cut made by some other surgeon.

A sudden bright flash in front the hourglass made him look away from the stomach churning sights below him. He gasped and scooted back as far as he could when he realized what-or who-had just materialized outside the of the hourglass he was trapped in. It was the girl Rio Kastle that his father had recently ordered him to duel, except her eyes were glowing turquoise with no pupils or iris's. He moved the hand away from his face and stretched it out until his finger tips met the cool glass of his prison. "You.." he muttered, suddenly panicked. Below, the heart monitor began racing, but only the surgeons payed it any mind.

Rio smirked wickedly at his sudden change in attitude. "Me...exactly where you went wrong." she replied.

Quattro blinked slowly, due to shock and pain. "What...?" he mumbled, cringing with the pain speaking brought.

Rio tilted her head. "Obviously I was meant to take injury here but I don't suppose you were."

Her words brought Quattro out of his shock. He scowled at her. "What?!" This time the word was spoken with fury.

"Your father has a part for each of his children in his plan; surely yours does not end here, does it?" She moved her head up right with a look of mock pity.

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" If he weren't convinced this was some whacked-out dream the anesthesia had brought forth from the depths of his mind, he would have asked the girl how she knew so much about what was happening in his life.

**"Doesn't she?" **That eery voice spoke up out of the blue. **"Surely some one more talented and mature such as you're older brother could help your father carry out the rest of his plans? Where does that leave your younger brother then, hm?"**

Quattro withdrew his hand from the glass. "My father loves all of us!" he objected. "No one of us is more important than the others!"

"So stubborn...or deep in denial." Rio sighed, shaking her head. The heart monitor rate was beeping so fast at this point that the surgeons had started to truly panic and were moving so fast it was hard to tell if anything they were doing was helping. "You do want to help you father, don't you, Thomas?"

The instant she spoke his true name, countless memories from before and after his father disappeared flashed before his eyes. Quattro shut his his eyes and gripped his head, groaning in pain. He fell to his knees, a somewhat difficult task seeing as how the sand had somehow managed to creep part way up his lower legs without him noticing. "Yes...I do." he manged to reply. Suddenly he was out of breath and was panting just to get the air his body required.

**"You can't help him if you're dead, Thomas."**

"Wh-what am..I-I-I sup...posed to do?" he panted. He didn't even know how or why he was in surgery, much less the risk of fore mentioned operation. He had passed out directly after saving Rio.

"I suppose you can be revived if you do "Die"."

"What...do...you...m-m-mean?"

**"I have the capability to revive you should you die, but you have to promise to continue to help with your fathers plans."**

Quattro couldn't even begin to comprehend what he was just told.

"You do want you father to succeed, don't you Thomas?" Rio asked.

Quattro nodded, beyond speaking at this point. Besides the mutilations to his face, each and every memory that passed through his mind continued to bring him more and more pain, to the point where it felt as if tearing of his own face would be more painless.

"Then say, yes. We can't help if you don't agree."

Quattro struggled to reply but the pain was so unbearable that it was easier to keep his mouth shut, so he nodded again.

"SAY IT QUATTRO!" The girl demanded.

He managed to open his mouth but all that came out was grunts of pain.

**"SAY IT!" **Both spirits commanded.

"Yes! I-I-I'll do it. I want nothing more than for my father to succeed!" Quattro yelled abruptly. Rio smirked again. Below them, the monitor flat-lined, much to the surgeons dismay. The remaining sand from above quickly buried Quattro, suffocating him. The bottom half of the hourglass was so packed with sand it shattered, but the shard of glass and specks of sand vanished before they could be seen by the surgeons who were busy trying to revive their patient. Amidst the sand and glass, Quattro's spirit was nowhere to be seen.

A sudden bright flash blinded the surgeons, the sheer power put into it knocking them unconscious, their bodies somehow slumping to the floor instead of landing on their patient. The heart monitor mysteriously began beeping again as mentioned patients eyes slowly opened...

* * *

_**Ah, this chapter seems so much better than the last one. If Rio is out of character, it's because she is technically being possessed by Don Thousand. (I suppose his seal weakens every once in a while.) As for the surgery, I figured Quattro's scar/burn would need some care given as how painful and damaging they tend to be. It's up to you to decide if the surgery was needed or Vetrix or Don Thousand convinced them to do it so Quattro would die. Next chapter, Quattro meets Shark after assuming the whole ordeal was a freaky porduct of the anesthesia.  
**_

_**(Yugioh Zexal Is Not Mine Nor Will It Ever Be And I Don't Understand Why I Have To Do A Disclaimer In Every Chapter.)**_

_**Have a good day.**_

_**Sayonora.**_


	3. Glistening Tears

**THANKS TO Chino5294 and Bunnywings for reviewing. (I'm not dead! Yay!)**

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur for Quattro. Many times he tried to recall his "dream", but only received a nasty headache for his troubles. Eventually, he gave up on trying to remember his dream, although the memory of waking up to a room full of unconscious surgeons was a constant nagging in the back of his mind.

The day he was released from the hospital, Quattro felt numb. There were bandages on the right side of his face that would need to be changed every now and then. (He refused to listen to Quinton and the doctor prattle on about his condition like he wasn't even there.) Special lotion would need to be applied to the burn area during every changing, but it was still extremely likely that he'd end up with a scar.

On his left, Vetrix was giggling childishly and playing video games. Quattro had no doubt that if they'd been sitting down, his "Father" would be swinging his legs. On his right, Trey wore a forced smile and gripped his hand so tightly that his circulation was almost cut off. Not that Quattro was aware enough to actually care.

Suddenly, Quattro pulled away from Trey. Despite his tight grip, Trey hadn't expected Quattro to move at all, so Quattro was able to get away from his little brother almost easily. He bolted down the hallway, ignoring his brothers yells for him to stop and Vetrix's continued childish giggling.

As he ran through the hospital hallways (earning quite a few disgruntled yells), Quattro had no destination in mind, but his feet seemed to have a destination in mind so he didn't think about it. When he came to a stop, Quattro was too busy trying to catch his breath to see the patient name on the door in front of him. He leaned on the door so he wasn't hunched over as he caught his breath, but unfortunately for him, his door was slightly open. The door opened fully due to the pressure his body put on it and he fell inside.

"Oof!" he groaned as he hit the floor. Were hospital floors sanitary?

"W-what're you doing?!" someone he couldn't see from his position on the floor demanded.

Quattro prioritized standing up before replying. When he saw the patient on the bed he nearly exclaimed in dismay. _'This is that girls' room! But how did I end up here?! I didn't even know she was still in the hospital!' _he thought.

"What are you doing?!" the same voice demanded, this time more firm.

Quattro was barely able to tear his eyes away from Rio but was met with a more pleasing (to him) sight.

The teen on the other side of the bed had purple tentacle like hair and red rimmed (from crying) blue eyes, glistening with tears. It was the most beautiful thing he ever saw...


End file.
